One of the stranger themes of this early Fantasy Baseball season is the reversal of offensive power.

In the first week of the season, we saw the Miami Marlins break out with big numbers, only to be followed up by the Chicago White Sox leading the majors in scoring with 86 runs scored after 15 games this season.

On the other end of that spectrum are the Tigers, who were among the league leaders in runs scored over the past two seasons, with Miguel Cabrera and Prince Fielder. But now, minus Fielder, they’re having problems crossing the plate, as they rank 29th in the majors – just ahead of Kansas City.

The Red Sox, the top scoring team of 2013, now rank 24th in the majors, just barely above the Cubs and Astros, of all teams.

These shifts are sure to correct themselves in the coming weeks, but after the first two weeks, they’ve wreaked havoc with Daily Fantasy Baseball players!

Let’s see if we can’t figure it out for Thursday’s big games! There are a dozen games ahead of us this afternoon and evening including seven games on the evening docket.

Thursday’s Daily Fantasy Baseball Links

Here are the top Daily Fantasy Baseball articles for Thursday! If I missed any articles, let me know by leaving a comment or tweeting me @DavidGonos.

Neil Parker (@naparker77) shares his favorite hurlers of the day for DraftStreet’s setup. One of my favorites, Adam Wainwright, makes the list, despite his big salary.

“The Nationals average nine strikeouts a game and Adam Wainwright’s K/9 hasn’t dipped below 8.2 in his last four healthy seasons. Furthermore, the Nationals are far from healthy and Wainwright’s mound foe should struggle against a deep, potent and experienced Cardinals’ lineup.” — Parker

Mike Sheets offers up a couple AL Central aces as his favorite starting pitchers of the day. Tigers SP Justin Verlander faces the Indians at Comerica Park, and White Sox SP Chris Sale goes up against the Red Sox. Tristan Cockcroft also likes Ian Kennedy for a spot start against the Rockies in San Diego.

Brad Johnson shares some spoiled grapes about how he lost to a guy that stacked against one of the pitchers the same guy took. The guy bet against himself somehow and still won, haha! Johnson also discusses some games tonight, including how he thinks the two games in Texas and the White Sox game are the ones to target offensively tonight.

Ben Pritchett chips in today to choose a pair of hitters to target at each position, including Nick Franklin and Astros rookie OF George Springer.

“Get him in and get your popcorn ready. Whatever happens, he’s freed up space for you to spend elsewhere. Also, it’s possible every shark will have him even though it’s not an ideal matchup, so you need to be aware of playing defense against your would-be opponents.” — Pritchett

Dave Loughran also likes Chris Sale, but he takes Royals ace James Shields as his top starting pitcher of the day. He cites Houston’s affinity for striking out so much against right-handed pitchers last year and now this year.

Dobish suggests using a stack of players on the Rays this evening against the Yankees.

” In the past, a matchup against the New York Yankees and SP CC Sabathiawould be an instant avoid. However, Price has been right against the Bronx Bombers, going 6-3 with a 3.81 ERA with 69 punchouts over the past 82 2/3 innings spanning 13 starts since the beginning of the 2011 season. On the flip side, Sabathia is 3-8 with a 4.53 ERA in 14 starts against the Rays since April 2011, so Price looks to have a favorable matchup at home based upon trends.” – Dobish

Notorious breaks down every single game, with some picks to target and players to avoid in each game. He also points out how dominant Giants SP Madison Bumgarner has been at AT&T Park.

“n 13 home starts last season he posted a 2.33 ERA with a 1.00 WHIP and a K/9 of 9.4. He has also had success against the Dodgers with an ERA just over 3.00 in his last 5 starts against them. I wish he was a bigger favorite, but I still think he makes a great cash game play.” —

Fantasy Opening Day: Draft Kings (Chris) Sale Prices!

Once in a while, I’ll try to point out some interesting plays on different sites. For instance, White Sox starter Chris Sale, who struck out 226 batters last season, faces a Twins team that struck out 1,430 times last season – second-most in the majors.

Most sites have Sale as the fourth-most expensive pitcher for Monday, but Draft Kings has him listed at $10,000, which is the eighth-most expensive salary among pitchers, behind Fernandez, Hernandez, Liriano, Price, Strasburg, Verlander and Wainwright.

Daily Fantasy Baseball Links for Monday, March 31

(These links were posted Sunday night at 11pm. As new articles come in, I plan to update them, so check back Monday morning.)

“If Scheppers can stay in the strike zone, he should be more than serviceable. Some DFS touts will tell you to always pay for your starter, but Scheppers skills/price make him quite the interesting play.” – Pritchett

Notorious loves Verlander for the Tigers’ opener, and he notes that the Royals were among the bottom of the league against right-handed pitchers last season. He also loves Phillies 2B Chase Utley against Scheppers, after Utley picked up his stats a bit down the stretch in March.

The Grind Down is a deep dive into every single game, and really is one of the best Daily Fantasy Tools around.

Another one of my favorite tools, the boys at ESPN rank each day’s starting pitchers for Daily play. A new wrinkle they’ve added is a “GS” column, which stands for projected “Game Score” for each pitcher. This uses Bill James’ original formula, which takes in the past three years and the past 21 days.

They have Sale ranked 11th in Game Score, 53, with Jose Fernandez (72) and Sonny Gray (64) leading the position.

“[Fernandez’s] numbers in two starts against the Rockies last year were silly good, as he posted a pitching line of 14 IP, 9 H, 2 ER, 2 BBs, 16 K’s. And don’t forget that the 21-year-old was absolutely filthy at spacious Marlins Park last season, going 9-0 with a 1.19 ERA, 0.86 WHIP, 9.9 K/9 and an unbelievable opponents’ slash of .164/.228/.225 in 15 starts.” – Brian Gramling

Love this breakdown of the Daily Games coming up, as Dobish details the weather and venues. He also likes Billy Butler’s bat against Verlander, mostly because of his BvP stats, plus because he’s cheap on DraftDay.com.

Tony Cincotta is a Fantasy veteran, and he makes some picks for StarFantasyLeague’s scoring system. He likes Jhonny Peralta despite a mediocre spring, and Scheppers, once again, because he’s also listed as a relief pitcher on their site.

Don’t forget to check the DailyMLBLineups.com page before games start to make sure your players are playing!

Good luck! I hope we find you a winner on the day after Fantasy Opening Day!